Sudden Coral die off

Discussion in 'Coral Health' started by laurae95531, Dec 23, 2012.

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  1. sailorguy

    sailorguy Torch Coral

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    Was the 120 purchased new or used? Also watever tank you are using for your sump,if used it might be good to test for copper.
     
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  3. benjaminS

    benjaminS Astrea Snail

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    Water

    I remember a reefer telling me that Water companies dose stuff to clean pipes once every few years. The stuff literally kills corals faster than anything. So maybe if you are using RO from tap it might cause t his.
     
  4. laurae95531

    laurae95531 Plankton

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    Ouch!!

    I must have had some bad test kit, I went to LFS and got some new ones, turns out my nitrates were through the roof.
    Answer the other questions first though, I had about 4 inches of sand/crushed coral mix substrate in the old 75g. When I set up the 120g I used the sand that was in it from the previous owner. We tore down and set up in less than a day. I ran filters for about 12 hours to clear up the water before I added everything back in. The lights on my old 75g were new, I finally coughed up the $$ and bought a new system, it was only about 2 months old when I switched over the the new tank. The 55g drum I used to store and transport the water was an old honey container. It had been used for holding nothing but water over the last 2 years, although most of the time it was empty. I did rinse it out and scrub it out before I used it for the salt water. We are on well water, so I have no worries about anything man made being in the water. Sometimes it runs high in the mineral department, but I always used it in my old tank, and never had any issues. I'm using one of those giant black rubber round tub things for my sump. I follow the directions on the bottle when it comes to dosing.
    I made up about 40 gallons of RO water lastnight, got my salt in, heated it just a little, now its just got a power head in it. I'm planning on pretty much draining the sump (not quite completely) and putting the fresh salt water in it. Do you think that would do more harm (shock) than good at this point?
    I pulled most of my sickly corals out and put them in my QT tank, which I have my old lights on, but they're still taking a nose dive. I think they're all pretty much dead at this point. In my 120g not even the mushrooms are opening up anymore. The whole tank just looks so washed out and grey. Its so disappointing.
     
  5. oldfishkeeper

    oldfishkeeper Giant Squid

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    I am so sorry to hear that the problem hasn't been fixed....do you have an update on your tank? Just curious.....I felt so badly for you :(
     
  6. laurae95531

    laurae95531 Plankton

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    I ended up taking out about 50g of water, and putting in RO water to bring the levels down. I have whats left of all my corals in my QT as its easier to manipulate parameters as needed, not really sure if they'll make it or not, time will tell. My fish as still look fine, no worse for the wear. I think I need a bigger return pump to speed up my cycle time. I'm looking at getting better lights in about a month. The ones on there are pretty good, but better never hurts. My salt is at 1.023, and everything else is where it should be now, but I'm just going to have to be patient and see if they come back, or if I'm gonna need to start over. Thanks for the check up though!
     
  7. oldfishkeeper

    oldfishkeeper Giant Squid

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    Well, I will keep my fingers crossed and hope that many will come back.....You never figured out the cause?
     
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  9. laurae95531

    laurae95531 Plankton

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    I had been testing my water about once a week, and after everything started dying, I tested again. At first everything was normal, then my friend came over with her test kits and we tested again. My nitrates were through the roof, like so high it wouldn't even register-over 400, and my salt was over 1.32, so I'm kinda assuming I was slowly murdering everything in my tank through sheer ignorance and some bad test kits. I replaced about 50g of tank water with simple fresh RO water, brought all the levels down to with in normal, still a bit on the high side of acceptable salt level, so I've been replacing about 10g of tank water with RO every day for about the last 4 days. Today I'm letting the tank rest, I'll check everything again tomorrow with my NEW test kits. The mushrooms are looking better, the polyps (some of them) are opening up, but I think my hammers, brains, leathers, cabbages, and assorted frags are goners. Most of the leathers and cabbages just started falling apart in the QT, so I cleaned them out, some of the hammers and brains have some color left of the skeleton, but I'm not sure if that means they can still come back or not. I have all of them in the QT as its easier to regulate everything. Thanks for the well wishes!
     
  10. Servillius

    Servillius Montipora Digitata

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    When water evaporates from your tank, what do you replace it with usually?
     
  11. laurae95531

    laurae95531 Plankton

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    Usually straight RO water. Should I be doing something else? Totally open to any suggestions.
     
  12. Marshall O

    Marshall O Giant Squid

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    He was asking just to make sure you don't top off your water with saltwater, as that will quickly raise your salinity. Ideally you should use RO/DI water (unless that is what you meant). What are you using to check salinity?